National Geographic editor tells how photography changed her life

Photographer, producer and Senior Photo Editor at National Geographic, Pamela Chen first picked up a camera at around 9 months old. Although she was pointing the camera the wrong way, as children often do, the photo that Chen shares with us in this video is a sweet memento. During the video, which is sponsored by Microsoft OneDrive, Chen tells the story of how capturing one blurry photograph when she was a college student changed the course of her life. She also explains why photography is a natural fit for her and provides a glimpse into one of her first National Geographic assignments.

As a senior photo editor, Chen is tasked with reviewing each frame that comes in for a story. She says that's around 10,000-60,000 images per story. You can find out more about Chen on her website.

Can you remember the moment or photograph that inspired you to pursue photography?

Can you remember the moment or photograph that inspired you to pursue photography?....................I started more than half a cetury ago with my mama's Roleiflex & on first photo was ... mother, ofcourse.:o)

A dolly zoom is a cinematographic technique that involves moving the camera forward while zooming out, or moving the camera back while zooming in. This doesn't explain how a still photograph can be given the effect of a dolly zoom.

"Can you remember the moment or photograph that inspired you to pursue photography? "

Sure. Mine was back in 2004, almost 10 yrs exactly from now, when I was in the woods with my father. At the time I had a simple Pentax MZ-60 QD and 28-80 standard zoom mounted. At a certain point I took this picture and for the first time I had some kind of background separation and - to a certain extent, also some kind of 3d effect on my father's hands because of the way the light fell on him. For the first time I had a picture where the main subject was separated from the background.. and I liked it a lot, SO much that I started trying and learning how to improve.

nice, mine was discovering I had manual settings on an old 2005 Kodac fixed zoom and learning how to take pictures of stars with it. As soon as I got the photo that lit up a dark sky I just wanted to know everything. I realised photography is super expensive as a hobby though so one day (hopefully soon) I find a decent deal on something that can take photos to my liking.

Much appreciated: her life-long quest with photography; and a very well-done, intimate video. Vivacious and interesting lady, and and co-incidentally also reflects my own journey and photograhic interests. Tony Webster, Barbados

You have to cut out the people (foreground) from the pictures to separate it from the background through layering (you have to either scale a bit the foreground or the background to cover up the cuts when animating) then animate separately both foreground and background to create a zooming effect.. These can be done using a software like the Adobe After Effects..